William Hurt

The textbook model of the sensitive leading man, Oscar-winning actor William Hurt was a major player in 1980s cinema who was typically cast as a detached intellectual type and easily at his best playi...
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The parents of the camera assistant who was hit by a speeding train and killed while shooting Allman Brothers biopic Midnight Rider earlier this year (14) have settled their civil lawsuit against the producers of the film. Richard and Elizabeth Jones have reached confidential agreements with many of the defendants, including writer/producer Jody Savin and director Randall Miller.
Their daughter Sarah lost her life in a freak accident on the set of the film in rural Georgia, while she was attempting to shoot footage from a trestle in Wayne County.
Executive producers Jay Sedrish and Don Mandrik and location manager Charles Baxter have also reached a settlement with the grieving parents.
Their suit originally listed Gregg Allman, whose memoirs inspired the film, but his name was dropped from the case in October (14).
Filming was halted immediately after the tragedy and William Hurt, who was cast as Gregg Allman in the movie, has since quit the project.
Miller, Savin and Sedrish are still facing involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass charges. Their case is scheduled to go to trial in March (15). They each face 10 years in prison if found guilty.

Video taken moments before production assistant Sarah Jones was killed on the set of stalled Allman Brothers biopic Midnight Rider aired on U.S. news program 20/20 on Friday (31Oct14). Jones, 27, was struck by a train while the crew was filming on a trestle in Georgia in February (14) and on Friday, TV producers broadcast footage taken from a camera inside the locomotive as it speed down the track towards the production.
The video, shown once at normal speed and then slowed down, shows actors William Hurt and Wyatt Russell running off the trestle three seconds before impact.
In the report, it is noted that a hospital bed was placed across the tracks for a dream sequence and it was that prop that caused the Jones tragedy. Her parents' lawyer Jeff Harris says, "The train hits the bed and the bed flies up and apparently a portion of the hospital bed strikes Sarah and pushes her into the train."
The program also featured onset photographs, the emergency call plus testimonials from hairstylist Joyce Gilliard, who was also injured during the incident, and Jones' parents Richard and Elizabeth.
Production was halted following the accident.
Director Randall Miller, his producer wife Jody Savin, executive producer Jay Sedrish and first assistant director Hillary Schwartz are facing a civil lawsuit from Jones' parents plus criminal charges for involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass.
They have pleaded not guilty to the counts and are due to stand trial in March (15).
Rocker Gregg Allman, a producer on the film, was dropped from the civil lawsuit on Thursday (30Oct14).

It's been weeks since the last new Outlander episode and you're feeling hurt, confused, a little angry. We feel your pain. You had a date with the show every Saturday night, and then the mid-season finale abruptly put things on hold until (sob) April 4th.
If you’re already going through Jamie Fraser withdrawals, here are some tips to make it through the lonely months until the glorious kilt-clad ginger graces our TV screens again. And if you haven’t yet experienced the Scotland-set time-travel drama on Starz, consider this hiatus your official catch-up time. Binge-watching awaits!
1. Read everything Google will tell you about the lead actors (and learn how to pronounce their real names).
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Irish actress Caitriona (pronounced Katrina) Balfe plays Claire, a British nurse from 1945 who gets catapulted back to 1743 Scotland. Her 18th century love interest, Jamie, is played by Scottish actor Sam Heughan (HEW-an).
2. Follow the cast on Twitter and Instagram.
.@Heughan wow, don't know quite what to say... Errrr Thank you ... ?!? Ahem, just going to walk away slowly.... #awkward
— Caitriona Balfe (@caitrionambalfe) October 4, 2014
Things you’ll learn: Sam climbs a lot of mountains and Caitriona likes cats. Also there was that time Sam accidentally tweeted Caitriona a porn link on her birthday and it was hilarious.
3. Plan your trip to Scotland.
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Map out your own Outlander tour by visiting Inverness, Fort William and some standing stones. Who knows? If you're lucky you may get transported back in time.
4. Read the books.
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This one’s an obvious one. But if you’re dying to know what will happen after the mid-season cliffhanger, reading Diana Gabaldon’s novels (there are 8 of them) will give you the answers to that and more!
5. Learn Gaelic.
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The show doesn’t subtitle the Gaelic bits, so now’s your chance to brush up so you know what those Scottish Highlanders are saying. Aye, Sassenach?
6. Rewatch “The Wedding” episode (aka the episode everyone was talking about) for the billionth time. You know you want to.
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7. Scroll the Outlander Mean Girls mash-up tumblr and marvel over its brilliance.
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8. Nag all of your friends to watch the show because they don’t know what they’re missing. (They'll thank you eventually.)
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9. Wear lots of plaid. ‘Tis the season for tartan anyway, so you’ll be on trend and feel like you’re part of a Scottish clan.
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10. Drink whisky. Like a Claire amount of whisky.
outlandercommunity.com
11. Listen to Ron D. Moore’s podcasts.
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Moore, who exec produces the show, and his wife Terry Dresbach, the show’s costume designer, give insightful commentary on each episode. Each podcast is free to download on Starz.com.
12. Most importantly, keep reminding yourself: April will be here before you know it! You’ll get through this!
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Christian Camargo, the writer, director and star of new movie Days And Nights, used his family connections to stock the film with all-stars. The Twilight star is married to British thespian Mark Rylance's daughter Juliet, who produced the film with her Tony Award-winning father, and he was thrilled by the names they brought on board.
He tells WENN, "A little nepotism doesn't hurt! It started with a little bit of nepotism, a little bit of friends, and sort of snowballed from there."
But Camargo insists many of the stars who signed up for the film were friends of his that he persuaded to join the cast based on his script: "I worked with Katie (Holmes) before in the play All My Sons - it was her Broadway debut! I was so impressed with what she was capable of doing and her abilities, and felt they were sort of undervalued and underused, so I was really excited to work with her again because she's really good.
"And it was my first film so I needed to really rely on some friends who would be supportive, but, in addition to that, I worked my butt off on this script and I sort of convinced people that it's something that is not done; to have an ensemble movie is just not done very often, so they jumped at the chance to spend 26 days in, like, a theatre camp and just explore."
As well as Holmes, the film also features his wife and father-in-law, Allison Janney, Ben Whishaw, Jean Reno, William Hurt, Cherry Jones and Michael Nyqvist.

Actor William Hurt has moved on from the drama of his stalled Allman Brothers biopic by signing on for new movie about iconic sprinter Jesse Owens. Hurt abandoned Midnight Rider shortly after camera assistant Sarah Jones was killed on the set of the film in February (14), and now he is set to join Stephan James, Jeremy Irons, Jason Sudeikis and Carice van Houten in Race.
He'll portray Jeremiah Mahoney, the president of the Amateur Athletic Union.
The film will be shot in part at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany, where Owens picked up four Olympic gold medals in 1936 as a disgusted Adolf Hitler watched.

Don Omar's girlfriend is keen to drop domestic abuse charges filed against the Reggaeton star following an altercation between them last week (ends19Sep14). The rapper/singer, real name William Omar Landron Rivera, was taken into custody in his native Puerto Rico amid allegations he threatened his 26-year-old partner Rebeca Lopez at a home in the Vega Alta neighbourhood.
He was subsequently slapped with multiple counts of domestic violence and weapons charges and was released on $600,000 (£375,000) bail, but now Lopez has made it clear she has no plans to pursue the legal action.
In a Facebook.com post earlier this week (begs22Sep14), Lopez suggests the incident has been blown out of proportion and she regrets the negative impact the arrest has had on Omar's reputation.
She wrote, "I feel too much pressure and cannot stand for one more day what this has become. I cannot afford to hurt some (one) I love, much less interfere with his career, for which he has independently fought for.
"We all make mistakes and my heart will not let me. Inside me there is only forgiveness. I cannot continue with this process."
Reports suggest Lopez's aunt informed police of her decision to drop charges on Tuesday (23Sep14), but she will still have to appear in court on Monday (29Sep14), when Omar will face the accusations.

Jessica Chastain felt more than comfortable working with writer/director Ned Benson on their new movie The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby, because the filmmaker is her ex-boyfriend. The famously private Zero Dark Thirty star reveals she remained friends with Benson long after their romantic relationship ended, and once she found fame with her breakthrough role in 2011's The Help, she wanted to do what she could to get his feature film debut to the big screen.
Chastain also helped her close pal, Teeth actress Jess Weixler, land a role in the film, too.
She explains, "I really believe in him and I met him because I won tickets to the Malibu Film Festival... and I saw a short film he did; I thought he was so talented.
"We became friends for four years, then we started a relationship and he'd written this film. The relationship ended, but I don't believe that love ends; I think it just kind of transforms, but never goes away, so, to be able to shine the spotlight that was on me, and say, 'Look at my friends', because also my best friend Jess Weixler plays my sister in the movie, and just to say, like, 'How incredible are these people?', it was a very emotional experience to make it."
Chastain's star power also attracted the likes of James McAvoy, Viola Davis and William Hurt to sign up for the drama, about a young couple whose marriage is rocked by a life-changing event.

Director Randall Miller has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass following the death of a camera assistant on the Georgia set of the Allman Brothers biopic. Sarah Jones, 27, was hit by a train and killed in February (14) as the production crew shot footage for Midnight Rider on railroad tracks in Wayne County. Six other crew members were also injured.
A criminal investigation was launched and now the Wayne County District Attorney has indicted Miller, his producer wife Jody Savin and the film's executive producer Jay Sedrish on the two counts amid allegations they failed to secure a permit to shoot on the train tracks.
The charge of involuntary manslaughter carries a sentence of up to 10 years behind bars, while the criminal trespass misdemeanour could land Miller and the producers 12 months in prison.
Production on the movie, based on the memoirs of Gregg Allman, was halted following the train tragedy and the subsequent exit of lead actor William Hurt, who had been set to portray the rocker. Hurt had previously expressed his concerns about safety on the Wayne County set in an email to a friend, days before Jones' death.
The criminal charges are not the only legal woes for Miller - Jones' parents filed a civil suit against the movie's filmmakers in May (14), and a number of other crew members involved in the accident have lodged official complaints.
News of the indictment emerges days after stars including Heather Locklear, Nina Dobrev and Sam Underwood joined a group of Hollywood crew members to film a public service announcement (PSA) in Jones' memory. The short film calls for increased safety measures on film and TV sets.

A movie hairstylist who fractured her arm during the tragic train crash which killed a camera assistant on the set of The Allman Brothers biopic Midnight Rider has filed suit against rocker Gregg Allman and the film's producers. Joyce Gilliard was one of six crewmembers injured on 20 February (14), when Sarah Jones was fatally struck by an oncoming train as they shot landscape footage on a trestle in rural Wayne County, Georgia.
Production on the film, based on Allman's memoirs, immediately ground to a halt and lead actor William Hurt, who had raised questions about staff safety in an email to a friend days before the incident, subsequently quit the project.
Last week (21May14), Jones' parents launched legal action against 10 individuals involved in the film, including executive producer Allman and director Randall Miller, and now Gilliard has followed their lead.
She filed papers in Savannah, Georgia on Wednesday (28May14), claiming injuries she sustained as she tried to race to safety from the oncoming train have left her with post-traumatic stress.
Gilliard did not detail the extent of her ailments, which she alleges have become permanent, but she previously revealed, "The pressure from the train was so strong it pulled me off what I was holding onto and it snapped my arm."
Allman and his fellow defendants have yet to comment on the new lawsuit, but the veteran rocker's attorney recently criticised the Jones family's decision to include him in their wrongful death case, insisting his client had nothing to do with selecting shooting locations or "the actual physical production of the film".
An investigation into the accident is ongoing, but officials have stated that Miller and his crew had permission to be on the property, but not on the train tracks themselves. Local authorities have yet to decide whether to file criminal charges in the case.
Allman had also tried to sue Miller and his production company in early May (14) in an effort to win back the film rights to his life story after insisting the movie project should no longer go ahead. The rocker subsequently dropped the lawsuit after reaching an undisclosed agreement with Miller.

Actress Shirley Maclaine is reportedly in negotiations to join the cast of real-life basketball drama Men Of Granite. If the Terms of Endearment star signs on to the movie, she will play school teacher Sophia Prather in the film adaptation of sports writer Dan Manoyan's novel. His book centred on the true story of the 1940 Granite City High School men's basketball team, which was comprised mostly of immigrants and went on to win the Illinois State Championship. William Hurt has been cast to play the team's coach.

Created the role of Eddie in David Rabe's off-Broadway play "Hurlyburly"; also played role on Broadway

Summary

The textbook model of the sensitive leading man, Oscar-winning actor William Hurt was a major player in 1980s cinema who was typically cast as a detached intellectual type and easily at his best playing characters who were physically or emotionally damaged. Reputed for his mercurial temperament both on and off the set, Hurt maintained somewhat of a contentious relationship with Hollywood for most of his career, but nonetheless came to attention opposite Kathleen Turner in the steamy "Body Heat" (1981), before standing out in the ensemble cast of Lawrence Kasdan's classic drama "The Big Chill" (1983). Following his breakthrough role as a flamboyantly gay window dresser in "Kiss of the Spider Woman" (1985), Hurt was vaulted to the upper tier of Hollywood leading men. He earned more critical acclaim for "Children of a Lesser God" (1986) and "Broadcast News" (1987) before falling off the radar for a time with supporting roles in less-than-stellar projects like "I Love You to Death" (1990), "Mr. Wonderful" (1993) and "Michael" (1996). Bowing down to Hollywood as the star of the disappointing big screen adaptation of "Lost in Space" (1998), Hurt recovered with a brief, but Oscar-nominated performance in "A History of Violence" (2005). With his wounded portrayal of a scientist grieving the murder of his wife on the second season of "Damages" (FX, 2007-2010) and his portrayal of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson in "Too Big to Fail" (HBO, 2011), Hurt cemented his reputation as a passionate artist more concerned with creating great roles than churning out "bland pabulum for the masses."

Formerly with New York City Ballet; met 1981 during summer stock season at Saratoga Springs; Split 1984; She filed much-publicized palimony and child custody suit against Hurt 1989; In February 1991, NY Court of Appeals upheld a decision that couple did not have common-law marriage; trial testimony revealed he paid her $64,000 annually

Met while co-starring in "Children of a Lesser God" (1986); Lived together for two years; No longer together

Claire McGill

Mother

Worked at Time Inc. after 1956 divorce from Hurt's father; met and married Henry Luce III 1960; Died of pancreatic cancer 1972 at age 47

Education

Name

Middlesex Prepatory School

The Juilliard School

Tufts University

Notes

In 1988, Hurt became the first recipient of the Spencer Tracy Award presented by UCLA.

He lived in France for several years in the mid-1990s.

"You have to create a track record of breaking your own mold, or at least other people's idea of that mold." – Hurt quoted in The New York Times, September 1994

"[Hurt] was one of the most passionate, intelligent, mad people I've ever met in my life." – "Altered States" (1980) co-star Blair Brown to Premiere magazine, October 1997

"In his soul [he] is a truly conflicted, turbulent human being. Not in the way lots of actors seek to be, because they find the notion of torment romantic. He is that, plain and simple." – Madeleine Stowe to Movieline, February 1998

"I've traded a lot of important things, and not just money, for minutes of rehearsal. And I've sat so many times in rehearsal rooms saying, 'Where are my peers?' All too often, I've negotiated for that time and found myself the only person in the room. And that's where you prepare. That's where you exchange ideas. Which is where you get the energy." – Hurt to GQ magazine, July 2006

"I don't call it fun, I call it work. If it was fun, they wouldn't call it work. I mean, play is play, fun is fun and work is work. They're different. I work hard, even if it's supposed to be fun for someone else, it's work for me." – Hurt to CNN.com, June 16, 2008